FAQ

About Our Company

1. What does C.O.-O.P. in your company name stand for?

C.O.-O.P. is an acronym for Caring, Optimistic, Open-minded People.

2. Do you accept purchase orders from other businesses?

Yes. Mail your purchase orders to The Culture C.O.-O.P., P.O. Box 463, Davis, CA. 95616. Because accepting a purchase order is equivalent to extending you credit, we may require you to provide credit references and additional information before filling the first purchase order we receive from you. Once you have established an account with us, you can mail, fax (530-753-8511) or email (orders@CultureCo-Op.com) purchase orders.

3. What other organizations have we worked with?

We work with educators and educational institutions, non-profits, businesses, community organizations and social service agencies from all over the country. We provide services for children as well as adults. We have worked with and/or have participated in conferences held by a wide variety of organizations. For a sample list of these click here.

About Our Books

About "Grandpa, Is Everything Black Bad?"

1. What age group is appropriate for "Grandpa, Is Everything Black Bad?"

Sandy Holman has used the book in classrooms ranging from kindergarten through college. When she reads the book to younger readers (pre-kindergarten to 2nd grade), she often reads the first half word for word and then paraphrases key parts of the second half. This book has also been used in college courses addressing diversity and reading skills.

2. I am a teacher. How can I use Grandpa, Is Everything Black Bad? in my classroom?

Have children ask their parents about their heritage and then have the children share something simple about their heritage with the class.

Talk about how children can learn a lot from seniors like Montsho does from his grandfather in the story.

Invite a senior citizen to come speak to your class and share some local history.

Ask children about how the main character, Montsho, felt throughout the story.

Ask have they ever felt like Montsho does in the story.

Show your students a map of Africa and/or the world and have them each choose a country or continent about which they can write. Have older students finish the statement, “The part of the story I liked best was...”

Have younger students draw a picture that illustrates their favorite part of the story.

Have your students make drums out of old coffee cans. They can decorate them with African prints, pictures of Africa from magazines, etc.

Play a tape of a drum (or play a drum yourself) while reading the drum sequence of the story.

Show children a video tape about Africa or some other part of the world.

Play multi-cultural music from other parts of the world.

Share with children how all countries have some sort of musical traditions.

Have students read the story and create a skit based on the story for the class.

Have students make up their own story to get them familiar with the process of making a book.

Be creative and do whatever your imagination dictates!

3. Is the Grandpa in the book fashioned after the author's own grandfather?

Yes. The artist was asked to draw the Grandfather character so that it looked a good deal like the author's real Grandfather. We think she did a marvelous job!

4. What is the origin of the name, "Montsho"?

"Montsho" is Swahilli for "black".

About "We All Have A Heritage"

1. Why isn't my country's flag in We All Have A Heritage?

Although we would have liked to put every country's flag in this book, there simply isn't enough space on the page showing the various flags. We tried to pick a flag from a country in each of the continents. We hope readers will connect with the spirit of the "flags" picture in that the intent is to represent all by showing many.

About Our Logo

1. What do the words "Many Colors, One Race" mean?

These words are meant to acknowledge that while we might all look different, we are really all part of one common group, the human race. In fact, we do not acknowledge the concept of race as it has been invented and used, primarily by scholars of industrialized nations, to classify and further divide people.

2. Why are the faces facing east?

East is the direction of the sunrise, representing the beginning of a new day. We learned this from the ancient Egyptians. In Ancient Egypt, one of the earliest known human civilization, all the temples were constructed on the Eastern bank of the Nile river because it is in the direction of the sunrise, and all the burial sites were constructed on the Western bank.

3. Why is the rainbow of colors coming out of the continent of Africa?

Anthropological and scientific research supports the theory that Africa is the beginning of all human civilization. The fact that all human beings began in Africa and migrated outwards from there is the prevailing current thought drawn from known archaeological evidence. For example, Africa is the only continent in which all major humanoid skeletal remains have been found, the earliest from about 2.5 million years or slightly longer ago.

4. May I use your logo on some of my own materials?

No. Like all logos, ours is intended to represent and be associated with the high quality products and services our customers have come to expect from The Culture C.O.-O.P. It is our registered trademark. If you are interested in obtaining some materials with our logo on it, please contact us.